David_Blanchard Posted 25 April , 2021 Share Posted 25 April , 2021 The earliest mention of Essex Farm ADS I can find in either a war diary or on a map on in a war diary is from the WD of the 458 Field Company RE of the 49 Division, from September 1915. I have found a map of the northern sector of Ypres from June 1915 but no site given of Essex Farm- CRE 49 Division. I thought by the middle of 1915, Essex Farm was an established Advanced Dressing Station? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derekjgregory Posted 26 April , 2021 Share Posted 26 April , 2021 John McCrae wrote his celebrated poem 'In Flanders Fields' early in the morning of on 3 May 1915, sitting on the tailboard of an ambulance at Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Station. McCrae was a Medical Officer with the 1st Canadian Field Artillery, and he occupied the position - 'I can hardly say more than that it was near the Yser canal,' he told his mother – on 23 April: My dugout looked out on [the road]. I got a square hole, 8 by 8, dug in the side of the hill (west), roofed over with remnants to keep out the rain, and a little sandbag parapet on the back to prevent pieces of "back-kick shells" from coming in, or prematures from our own or the French guns for that matter. Some straw on the floor completed it. The ground was treacherous and a slip the first night nearly buried ----. So we had to be content with walls straight up and down, and trust to the height of the bank for safety. All places along the bank were more or less alike, all squirrel holes' (Letter, 24 April 1915). Two days later he recorded: 'To-day we got our dressing station dugout complete, and slept there at night.' McCrae described the experience as 'seventeen days of Hades', and at the height of the battle his commanding officer recalled that the wounded 'rolled down the bank into his dressing station.' Letters (and more!) in John McCrae, In Flanders Fields (1919) at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/353/353-h/353-h.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 27 April , 2021 Author Share Posted 27 April , 2021 Hi Derek, thanks for your help. I am aware of John McCrae’s association with Essex Farm, it’s just that I haven’t found any documents from the time that mention Essex Farm directly. None of the war diaries or any maps I have consulted from the period in which Canadian troops were there in early 1915- no mention of Essex Farm either in diaries associated with units of the 4 Division who took over from the Canadians. The first mention I can find is from September as seen above. I have also consulted the various medical diaries - ADMS and DDMS of the divisions stationed there and again no evidence of the use of Essex Farm as an Advanced Dressing Station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEW Posted 27 April , 2021 Share Posted 27 April , 2021 Looking through the McCrae site I can't see him using 'Essex' anywhere. He simply refers to his dugout. The phrase: sitting on the tailboard of an ambulance at Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Station. Found this on one other website with no further information. Was this written by McCrae in the Spring of 1915? My only other idea on this is that the name 'Essex Farm' ADS did not come into popular use for months? after the actual ADS had been established. The Sept 1915 diary says they had completed some work on the dugout. The Essex Farm in brackets seems like they're just trying to confirm which dugout by adding a location rather than naming the ADS as such. So, an ADS existed from Spring 1915 but not named as such until late Autumn? Can't even be certain that McCrae's dugout is the same dugout that became Essex Farm ADS. I'm now wondering where the Essex Farm name came from. Earliest burials are Canadian. What's the connection to Essex? TEW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 27 April , 2021 Author Share Posted 27 April , 2021 The 2 Essex were part of the 4 Division who held the canal bank for a period in 1915- perhaps they had dugouts here which later became the ADS. By November when this sector was held by the 49 West Riding Division- it was known as Essex Farm, however the improvement to make the dressing station shrapnel proof in September does not seem to have worked. See enclosed file from Website concerned with Shipley and the Great War- Corp. David Normington RAMC, buried Essex Farm 12 November 1915 . David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEW Posted 27 April , 2021 Share Posted 27 April , 2021 I've been looking at NLS maps and see that the structure named as Essex Farm is little more that a shed sized building right on the T junction. Makes sense now if 2/Essex held the bank that the name would come into play but exactly when. Could be a retrospective nod of honour to those who held it X months before? I wonder if McCrae ever heard the term Essex Farm dugout or dressing station. As another example I tried to track back the beginnings of Minden Post. The locality was being used for stores and HQs before the name was applied. TEW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 27 April , 2021 Author Share Posted 27 April , 2021 There is a fairly recent article by Jonathan Swan about Essex Farm in the Wellcome Collection magazine, that can be easily found- he suggests that it was unlikely that John McCrae would have known the medical facility as Essex Farm. He does say it was a well developed medical establishment by August 1915. I emailed Jonathan Swan this morning to ask how he knew it was well established by August 1915. Waiting for reply. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEW Posted 27 April , 2021 Share Posted 27 April , 2021 I've looked through 12th Infantry Brigade diary and they arrived in this sector at the end of April under the command of the Canadians. Looks like when 12th IB battalions were out of the line they went back to the canal bank. There are some sketch maps that show the area and show nothing at the location for early May. Whereas some aid posts and HQs are given on the canal bank to the N & S on another sketch. Odd the location has nothing there a month after McCrae was there. TEW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEW Posted 27 April , 2021 Share Posted 27 April , 2021 (edited) Not sure if you've seen 3rd West Riding FA diary. They arrived in the area 9/8/15 and talk of Essex House which is a bearer post and later a car stand for evacuations. They give a map ref which places Essex House near to Marango House. They are then sent to Essex Farm 24/9/15 to set up an ADS for future use. It's being used as a bearer post and ambulance stand 1/10/15. They are evacuating wounded via Essex Farm but not seeing it called an ADS until 10/11/15. It's then shelled 12/11/15, repaired and shelled again 28/11/15. Shelled again 7/12/15 so the ADS is moved to a tunnel dugout in canal bank 50 yards from former ADS. They mention two more tunnel dugouts for their use. WO95/2790/1 seems to be the one to check. TEW Edited 27 April , 2021 by TEW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 27 April , 2021 Author Share Posted 27 April , 2021 If he was there. I have been in correspondence with a guy who claims that McCrae was based at Malakoff Farm in April 1915. Alexis Helmer supposedly inspired McCrae’s famous poem. Thanks for the post with regard to the West Riding Field Ambulance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 1 February Share Posted 1 February There is a Malakhoff Farm in Brielen. Also mentioned on trench maps Those are just 2,5 km away from eachtother. Some of the graves have been brought over to Duhallow ADS cemetery. (https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/201075/teksten ) (sorry a Dutch text) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianmorris547 Posted 1 February Share Posted 1 February Not to be confused with the Essex Farm near Le Gheer. Mentioned in the April 1915 WD of 4 Div Commander Royal Engineers on 01/04 and 16/04/1915. TNA/Ancestry WO 95/1463 I looked through the June WD when 4 Div CRE was at Brielen but no mention of the Essex Farm nor is it shown on any 1915 maps in my collection. Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 1 February Share Posted 1 February On 27/04/2021 at 11:48, TEW said: Looking through the McCrae site I can't see him using 'Essex' anywhere. He simply refers to his dugout. The phrase: sitting on the tailboard of an ambulance at Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Station. Found this on one other website with no further information. Was this written by McCrae in the Spring of 1915? My only other idea on this is that the name 'Essex Farm' ADS did not come into popular use for months? after the actual ADS had been established. The Sept 1915 diary says they had completed some work on the dugout. The Essex Farm in brackets seems like they're just trying to confirm which dugout by adding a location rather than naming the ADS as such. So, an ADS existed from Spring 1915 but not named as such until late Autumn? Can't even be certain that McCrae's dugout is the same dugout that became Essex Farm ADS. I'm now wondering where the Essex Farm name came from. Earliest burials are Canadian. What's the connection to Essex? TEW A corporal, quoted by W. D. Mathieson in My Grandfather's War (Boston Mills, Erin, Ont., 1985), later described the circumstances as McCrae wrote the poem: "I saw him sitting on the ambulance step, a pad on his knee. He looked up when I approached, but continued to write.... I did not interrupt him. He wrote on for 5 minutes more. Then as I handed him his mail, he handed me his pad. His face was very tired but calm as he wrote. He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to [the officer's] grave. The poem was almost an exact description of the scene in front of us both...." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 3 February Share Posted 3 February Found this Trenchmap of Boesinghe 26th August 1915 from: http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A71271 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.Rhodes Posted 4 February Share Posted 4 February Good afternoon I have a copy of 'The Leadswinger' this is the bivouac journal of the 1/3rd West Riding Field Ambulance [WRFA]. It's rather like 'The Wipers Times'. Essex Farm is mentioned at least 5 times. According to the 1/3rd WRFA war diary [ credit to TNA ] the first mention is on 24th September 1915. "Captain Allen was sent to Essex Farm with 6 stretcher squads and necessary equipment to open an advanced dressing station there" On the page with the bathing beauty they are mentioning 10 and 17 CCS, this is from, I think, Oct 1915. The war diary goes on to mention Essex Farm being hit on several occasions by shelling. I can only imagine what my uncle Waide Reginald Worrall went through in his role as stretcher bearer with the 1/3rd WRFA. Regards, Peter Essex Farm.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 4 February Share Posted 4 February Those positions marked on the map. Left: Top Karte Farm Bottom: Hospital Farm Right: Essex Farm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 4 February Share Posted 4 February The same place on a map of 1841 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 4 February Share Posted 4 February I found this strange document. from: https://cefrg.ca/blog/no-3-canadian-general-hospital-mcgill/ Whichs dates the poem older then the death of Helmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.Rhodes Posted 5 February Share Posted 5 February Morning all. The mention of Gell St in one of the pages is because Gell St runs along side an Army establishment in Sheffield. When I was a kid it was called Somme Barracks but I think that name has now gone. I am attaching another page from The Leadswinger that mentions Essex Farm. Unfortunately it is not as light hearted as most of the book! Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 5 February Share Posted 5 February (edited) On this page they speak of a house, where Normington was killed. http://www.shipleyww1.org.uk/mws normington david.htm In his last letter to his parents, Cpl Normington remarked that they had had it rather exciting during the last few days. The Germans seemed to have made up their minds to shell their billet twice a day. They had dropped shells on all sides of the old house where he and his comrades were staying and which was used as a dressing station for the wounded. He added that he was very pleased to say they had not yet got too near with a large shell. They had, however, got within five yards with small shrapnel. Edited 5 February by bertkellens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 5 February Share Posted 5 February https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields_and_Other_Poems/John_McCrae Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertkellens Posted 8 February Share Posted 8 February On 27/04/2021 at 17:33, David_Blanchard said: If he was there. I have been in correspondence with a guy who claims that McCrae was based at Malakoff Farm in April 1915. Alexis Helmer supposedly inspired McCrae’s famous poem. Thanks for the post with regard to the West Riding Field Ambulance. from: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/mass-digitized-archives/commonwealth-war-graves-registers/Pages/item.aspx?PageId=181939 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 12 February Author Share Posted 12 February Thanks for all the replies to my enquiry- will get back to you in due course. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 12 February Author Share Posted 12 February On 04/02/2024 at 14:57, P.Rhodes said: Good afternoon I have a copy of 'The Leadswinger' this is the bivouac journal of the 1/3rd West Riding Field Ambulance [WRFA]. It's rather like 'The Wipers Times'. Essex Farm is mentioned at least 5 times. According to the 1/3rd WRFA war diary [ credit to TNA ] the first mention is on 24th September 1915. "Captain Allen was sent to Essex Farm with 6 stretcher squads and necessary equipment to open an advanced dressing station there" On the page with the bathing beauty they are mentioning 10 and 17 CCS, this is from, I think, Oct 1915. The war diary goes on to mention Essex Farm being hit on several occasions by shelling. I can only imagine what my uncle Waide Reginald Worrall went through in his role as stretcher bearer with the 1/3rd WRFA. Regards, Peter Essex Farm.pdf 145.88 kB · 2 downloads Peter, is there a date for ‘Essex Farm as we have seen it” ? David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_Blanchard Posted 12 February Author Share Posted 12 February On 04/02/2024 at 22:03, bertkellens said: I found this strange document. from: https://cefrg.ca/blog/no-3-canadian-general-hospital-mcgill/ Whichs dates the poem older then the death of Helmer. Very interesting that this document pre-dates the death of Helmer. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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